Border Patrol says all four aboard missing IBWC plane dead in crash

ALICIA A. CALDWELLAssociated Press Writer

Published 7:00 pm, Tuesday, September 16, 2008

PRESIDIO (AP) - The U.S. Border Patrol said Wednesday a plane carrying four people, including two International Boundary and Water Commission officials, has been found in a rugged section of the Sierra Madre Mountains in Mexico.

Bill Brooks, a spokesman for the Border Patrol in Marfa, said Mexican authorities are en route to the site. All four passengers, who were en route to investigate a potential levee break along the Rio Grande near Presdio, are dead.

IBWC Commissioner Carlos Marin, of the U.S. section in El Paso, his Mexican counterpart Arturo Herrera, Jake Brisbin Jr., executive director of the Rio Grande Council of Governments, and a pilot were aboard the chartered Cessna 410 that took off from El Paso Monday morning.

The plane was reported missing after it did not land on time in Presidio, a border town about 250 southeast of El Paso.

The flight plan included a detour into Mexico so the men could get an aerial view of the Luis Leon Reservoir where weeks of rain has prompted Mexican officials to release thousands of gallons of water into the Rio Conchos. That river flows into the Rio Grande.

Brooks said the crash site is about 20 miles northwest of Presidio and 13 miles from the Rio Grande. He said Border Patrol agents and Customs and Border Protection air and marine officers identified the plane by its tail number.

The area is extremely rugged and Brooks said the crash site is only accessible by foot.